The Applicant has developed a wide range of printers that use pagewidth printheads instead of traditional reciprocating printhead designs. The pagewidth designs increase print speeds as the printhead does not traverse back and forth across the page to deposit a line of an image. The pagewidth printhead simply deposits the ink on the media as it moves past at high speeds. Such printheads have made it possible to perform 1600 dpi resolution printing at speeds in the vicinity of 60 pages per minute; speeds previously not attainable with conventional inkjet printers.
The high print speeds require a large ink supply flowrate. Not only are the flow rates higher but distributing the ink along the entire length of a pagewidth printhead is more complex than feeding ink to a relatively small reciprocating printhead.
To prolong the life of the printhead, most inkjet printers will incorporate some type of maintenance facility. This may be as simple as capping the printhead when it is not in use. Capping a printhead will stop the ink on the nozzles from drying out. However it does not clean any paper dust or other contaminants that may have adhered to be nozzle face. The most effective way to remove these particles is by wiping the nozzle face with a suitable surface. However sometimes the contaminants and paper dust are so firmly adhered to the nozzle face, the wiper fails to remove them. Often this is because the paper dust has managed to anchor itself to a surface irregularity in the nozzle face. When paper dust and other contaminants are mechanically attached to the nozzle face in this manner, it is difficult to the wiper to dislodge them without using a contact force that would damage the delicate nozzle structures.